4 Types of Bumper Designs to Familiarize Yourself With

Truck bumpers shield a truck’s front and tail sections against physical damages. These areas contain some of the most vital components of the truck. On the exterior level, we are talking about protecting the vehicle’s headlights and grilles. But even more important we have the heart and soul of the truck right under the hood: the engine.

Truck bumpers are thus fit in a way that they can shield the engine from potential damage especially in the case of an accident. They are made from a variety of materials including steel, aluminium, fiberglass composites and even plastic.

The idea is to let the bumper absorb the most impact from a crash and thus minimize the probability of this impact affecting the engine and other vital parts within the hood such as the radiator, the alternator and the battery. But even with this intention in mind, bumpers are experiencing a shift in their design approach in order to make them more effective to this function. As a result there are a variety of bumper designs in the market for you to consider

Standards Bumpers

Standards bumpers are as basic as a bumper design can get. They simply stretch from the very left end to the right end of the truck and are located just below the grille. These bumpers are most common on as OEM parts from truck manufacturers such as the Standard bumpers on the Mercedes Actros which is designed to fit very specifically on the truck’s body. There are however a few aftermarket bumper manufacturers such as Crown Automotive who make Jeep bumpers for CJs and Wranglers.

Deep Drop Bumpers

The Deep drop bumpers have heavy-duty towing capacity and can thus be fitted on larger trucks for towing purposes. They are also known as cowboy bumpers and stand taller than the standard bumper. They bear a trapezoidal shape which features a low ball height (lower than those on step bumpers). Fab Fours bumpers are a good example of well designed deep drop bumpers that not only manage extensive towing duties but are feature a good finish to blend with the grille.

Roll Pan Bumpers

They are known to be much more streamlined and thus make the bottom of the truck look evened out and neater. They are thus commonly found on compact trucks. Most of the roll pan bumpers in the market are made of fiberglass and you can thus see how much this plays a part in refining the appearance of the truck. ARB bumpers include roll pan models for Toyota trucks.

Tube Bumpers

These types of bumper are known to add more shielding to the grille with a structure of metal tubes that run across the front section below the lights and over the grille. It is the most common bumper design in the truck bumper market with most aftermarket bumper manufacturers stocking a variety of this type of bumper for a wide range of truck models. For instance, Go Industries bumpers are designed to rise quite high and shield the headlights as well as the grilles thus providing a combination of a bumper and grille guard for your truck.